Letter- Who Benefits from HOT Lanes

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Originally posted by darkprime
[br]NoSUV, why don't you keep your retarded comments to yourself and off of this site. You have no apparent interest in supporting the slugging community and simply troll these boards. Haven't you read all the posts from people complaining how moronic virtually all your posts are? Take a long look into the mirror (if you haven't broken it already) and try to see yourself as everyone else does here.

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Sticks and stones. Sorry that you are so very challenged.

Have you only just now realized the paragraph you missed earlier and are trying to divert attention from your obvious mistake?

dark, I'm not angry or upset with you - I pity you.

FWIW & IMHO ... modern science can fix many things, but in NoSUV's case modern science just can't fix stupid. [;)]

I thought the VA state legislature played the role of our villian; things just don't work out that well with too many villians.

BUMPing up above the spam! [;)]

Some obvious replies to NoSUVs satatements:

"Better use needs to be made of mass transit." Anyone who actually rides the metro would know that the trains are elbow-to-elbow, standing-room-only during morning and evening rush hours. This reveals that NoSUV does not practice what NoSUV preaches. But since you bring it up, why would anyone subject themselves to that kind of torture; longer commutes (1 hour + vs. 30-45 min. slugrides), high costs ($11.45 daily rndtrp./parking vs. free slugging), not to mention the inconvenient, crowded, dirty conditions on the trains. NoSUV obviously has already made that decision and does not ride metro.

"Toll booths seem to be the best solution..., to raise revenue, which could be used for mass transit system subsidies." "Could" is the operative word here. Since the "revenue" will be managed by a private firm, tollpayers will have no control over how much of those revenues ever reach the blacktop or the transit system. Remember, private firms #1 goal is to make a profit; why would they want to subsidize anything that competes with their cash cow? This is half-baked, NoSUV. I expect more from you!

"Non-taxpayer incentives are needed to encourage consumers to purchase only SULEV vehicles." While I agree with you in theory, it is not realistic in practice. And hybrid tax breaks are not "Non-taxpayer incentives." Anytime one person receives a tax exemption, another must pay more to make up the deficit. Toll roads are also not the answer, for a different set of reasons. So what is the answer? The best of the worst case solutions is a higher statewide gas tax. This will put the financial responsibility for transportation on the shoulders of users.

Finally, "taxes do not necessarily need to be used to encourage consumers to make environmentally sound purchasing decisions." This couldn't be further from the truth! User based taxes are a great incentive to change behaviors, and they effectively motivate the intended target audience. In this example, a statewide gas tax would target local and pass through drivers, the users of VA interstate highways. Local users will be motivated by higher fuel charges to purchase more fuel effecient vehicles, which also happen to be lower emission vehicles.

Thanks for the chance to make the argument AGAINST toll roads and hybrid only express lanes.